After 4 1/2 years, I ceased daily posting to this website. However, I am sending to some people via email my research into the news. If you wish to be included, just let me know by making a comment below. I will not be posting every day as I did before.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

I recently visited Occupy Washington, D.C., just a few blocks from the White House.I congratulated the protesters there for having a list of responsible principles of non-violence.I disagree with their stated demands, the first official list I’ve seen.My response to those demands follows.

1.) The rich are already taxed by states and feds at up to 50% of income, while the lowest earning 47% of Americans are not taxed at all on income. While never decrying the immense incomes of actors and sports stars, Occupy crowds decry corporate owners and employees who actually provide jobs, develop products and pay the taxes which provide the safety net for the poor.
2) Wouldn't we all wish for a world with no enemies, no wars, no evil men attempting to take over the world? Unless Occupy protesters want to have a dictator or tyrant who cares not for their concerns at all, we must defend our freedoms.
3) Yes, the social safety net needs to be protected. Our money is not now wisely spent, fraud is rampant, unintended consequences increase government dependency, and government has defined poverty up in order to get more and more people on welfare. We have a multitude of poverty programs caring for the truly needy.Social Security is not strengthened by decrying the need to raise the age of retirement as we reach longer life expectancies. As to Medicare, all Americans receive Medicare when they reach the age of 65, whether they want it or not.
4) The end to corporate welfare is a laudable goal. I assume they disapprove of the recent government bailouts. Do they think this should also apply to government grants to failing environmental companies which have products which no one could afford to buy without government's interference, grants which turn into slush funds for companies which quickly go bankrupt?The basic axiom of crony capitalism is that one doesn’t need to break the law when many loopholes exist, an axiom which also works well for politicians.5) It would be a wonderful world if we could actually produce enough solar energy, nuclear energy and windmills to provide enough electricity to live in a developed way. Four decades ago Gary, Indiana had orange air from steel mills which ran with no controls. Lake Erie was once so polluted that the lake itself caught fire. Pollution of air and water is dramatically lower now, and we should continue to make reasonable attempts to protect our environment.
6) Worker's rights are protected – those of all workers. The days of terrible abuses of employees was certainly ended by unions, whose bloated benefits now put budgets at risk. Capitalism allows workers to leave one company to work for another which gives better benefits, making a competitive environment which forces companies to compete for the best workers. The rights of those who wish to work without a union, the vast majority of Americans, should also be protected, from forced membership, from having to pay dues to union bosses, from having to make their votes in public, and from having their union dues sent to just one political party regardless of the beliefs of the worker. The right to vote for collective bargaining is a protected right. It should not be a command.
7) Jobs?They are created by companies which take risks in order to develop services and products which consumers want and need. When government provides all jobs, sooner or later the government runs out of other people’s money, as "the rich" decide to avoid tyranny by closing their businesses or taking jobs overseas.
8) Let's do get money out of politics! I love that one! How on earth do they plan to do this by excoriating corporations instead of Congress and the President?Politicians are forced to be money-raisers from their first day in office.Perhaps Occupy would approve of laws which force politicians to have the same health care, benefits and pensions as do the “folks”, as our President calls us.Congress should be forced to pass no law from which they are exempt, such as the currently exposed legal insider trading. We need fresh solutions to make capitalism work once again.

[It has been my belief that this President has been using the principles of Cloward and Piven to bring this country to its knees. He is using his "We Can't Wait" program to overwhelm the system, the American citizens and Congress by overwhelming us with new regulations which put more and more people on the government dole, finally causing taxpayers to just give up and beg for government protection. Notice that Obama voters, those already on government assistance, cheer wildly as he flagrantly defies his oath to the American Constitution. This is income redistribution at its finest.]Fox News reports: This could be just the beginning. If President Barack Obama’s legally dodgy appointment of Richard Cordray to head the consumer finance agency should stick, it may open the door to more such actions. Here’s Jaret Seiberg of the Washington Research Group:
To us, the most important takeaway from a recess appointment of Cordray is that the President could use this same maneuver to put a housing advocate in charge of FHFA.
Mayer estimates that some $3.7 trillion of mortgages would be refinanced. That’s right, this would be the Mother of All Mortgage Refinancing Plans. It would help roughly 30 million borrowers save $75 billion to $80 billion a year. As Mayer puts it: “This plan would function like a long-­lasting tax cut for these 25 or 30 million American families.”

Bottom line: Talk about a political and economic game changer in this presidential election year. Obama could offer a trillion-dollar stimulus — as measured over a decade –that would directly and immediately impact tens of millions of Americans suffering from the housing depression. Cash in their pockets. Imagine the electoral impact on key states, such as Florida, suffering from both high unemployment and devastated housing markets.

And the beauty part for Obama? He wouldn’t need approval from Congress to do it. http://nation.foxnews.com/housing-foreclosures/2012/01/05/january-surprise-obama-preparing-trillion-dollar-mass-refinancing-mortgages
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Life Site News reports: January 4, 2012 (PublicDiscourse.com) - The anger and disgust that most of us experienced when we learned of the allegations of sexual abuse of boys in the sports programs at Penn State and Syracuse University suggest that our cultural norms about the sexual abuse of minors are intact. Yet it was only a decade ago that a parallel movement had begun on some college campuses to redefine pedophilia as the more innocuous “intergenerational sexual intimacy.”
The publication of Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex promised readers a “radical, refreshing, and long overdue reassessment of how we think and act about children’s and teens’ sexuality.” The book was published by University of Minnesota Press in 2003 (with a foreword by Joycelyn Elders, who had been the U.S. Surgeon General in the Clinton administration), after which the author, Judith Levine, posted an interview on the university’s website decrying the fact that “there are people pushing a conservative religious agenda that would deny minors access to sexual expression,” and adding that “we do have to protect children from real dangers … but that doesn’t mean protecting some fantasy of their sexual innocence.” http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/meet-the-academics-who-are-trying-to-redefine-pedophilia-as-intergeneration
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Blaze reports: The Times defines a “permanent patient”:

…[someone who has] been languishing for months or even years in…hospitals, despite being well enough to be sent home or to nursing centers for less-expensive care, because they are illegal immigrants or lack sufficient insurance or appropriate housing.

Patients fit to be discharged from hospitals but having no place to go typically remain more than five years, says LaRay Brown, a senior vice president for New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation.
She says that there were about 300 patients in such a predicament throughout the New York City area alone, most in public hospitals or higher-priced skilled public nursing homes, though a few were in private hospitals, according to the Times. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/hospitals-stuck-with-illegal-immigrant-uninsured-permanent-patients-at-massive-cost/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thomas More Law Center reports: ANN ARBOR, MI – Continuing its support of states that enact tough illegal immigration laws, the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a brief supporting Alabama’s recently enacted law.

The Law Center’s brief was filed on Tuesday, January 3, 2012, in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of United States v. Alabama, a case brought against the state of Alabama by the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to stop it from enforcing laws against illegal immigrants found in that state. The Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments this March. [read brief here] http://www.thomasmore.org/qry/page.taf

Glenn Beck reports: Obama said that while he would continue to work with Congress where he could, he said “when Congress refuses to act, and as a result, hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then I have an obligation as President to do what I can without them.”
“I’m not going to stand by while a minority in the Senate puts party ideology ahead of the people that we were elected to serve,” he added.
“Americans, hear what your president is saying,” Glenn warned. “I’ll work within the system but if they won’t move, then I will dictate.”
“Yeah. He says I will give Republicans every opportunity to agree with me,” Stu said. “And when they do not agree with me, I’ll do what I want.” http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/01/05/hail-to-the-king-obamas-latest-power-grab/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Hill reports: Prospects for striking a binding global climate deal by 2015 are probably toast if President Obama loses in November.
That’s among the conclusions in a wide-ranging, new climate and green energy outlook from banking giant HSBC’s research branch.

A major outcome from the United Nations climate talks in December was a plan to craft a deal by 2015 — one that would include big, developing nations such as China — and have it come into force by 2020.But Obama’s main Republican White House rivals are critical of emissions limits and skeptical of climate science. HSBC predicts an international agreement by 2015 is highly unlikely if Obama loses the election. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/202539-report-global-climate-deal-hinges-on-obama-reelection-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Hill opines: The recess appointments President Obama announced Wednesday are “almost certain” to be challenged in court, according to a top official with the nation’s largest business lobby.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has not decided whether it will file a legal challenge to the appointments, according to David Hirschmann, who heads the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. But he said he’s confident that Obama’s precedent-shattering move will land the administration in court.

The recess appointments broke with legal precedent, as they while the Senate is holding regular pro forma sessions. Republicans insist the Senate has not been in recess thanks to the seconds-long sessions held every few days, but White House attorneys determined the procedural move is a gimmick that can be ignored by the president.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) blasted the move as an "unprecedented power grab" and said he expects "the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate."
However, one question a judge could need to answer is whether Cordray will actually be able to assume those powers since he has been recess-appointed. The text of the Dodd-Frank law states that those powers will not take effect until the CFPB director "is confirmed by the Senate." http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/202425-chamber-official-court-fight-over-obamas-appointments-almost-certain
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CNS News reports: On his radio show last night, Mark Levin said that President Barack Obama has caused a “constitutional crisis” by appointing members to the National Labor Relations Board and a director to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without going through the constitutionally required Senate confirmation process.

"The President of the United States is trashing the Constitution now day in and day out,” Levin said.
At one point, Levin likened the explanation Obama made yesterday for appointing these federal officials without Senate confrmation to the "forthright statement of a dictator." http://cnsnews.com/blog/patrick-burke/mark-levin-we-have-constitutional-crisis
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Forbes opines: your government has been quietly wrapping up a Christmas gift of its own: adoption of UN resolution 16/18. An initiative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly Organization of Islamic Conferences), the confederacy of 56 Islamic states, Resolution 16/18 seeks to limit speech that is viewed as “discriminatory” or which involves the “defamation of religion” – specifically that which can be viewed as “incitement to imminent violence.”
Whatever that means.
Initially proposed in response to alleged discrimination against Muslims in the aftermath of 9/11 and in an effort to clamp down on anti-Muslim attacks in non-Muslim countries, Resolution 16/18 has been through a number of revisions over the years in order to make it palatable to American representatives concerned about U.S. Constitutional guarantees of free speech. Previous versions of the Resolution, which sought to criminalize blasphemous speech and the “defamation of religion,” were regularly rejected by the American delegation and by the US State Department, which insisted that limitations on speech – even speech deemed to be racist or blasphemous – were at odds with the Constitution. But this latest version, which includes the “incitement to imminent violence” phrase – that is, which criminalizes speech which incites violence against others on the basis of religion, race, or national origin – has succeeded in winning US approval –despite the fact that it (indirectly) places limitations as well on speech considered “blasphemous http://www.forbes.com/sites/abigailesman/2011/12/30/could-you-be-a-criminal-us-supports-un-anti-free-speech-measure/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------American Thinker opines: I have seen and experienced the worst that man can offer, I am not intimidated, and I will say without reservation that Barack Obama and his cronies have the same mindset in their tactical approach, philosophy, and lust for power that was extant in Benito Mussolini and the Fascists in the early days of their regime. If the apologists for those in power in Washington want to vilify me for that comparison, so be it.To the American people, it is far beyond time to wake up to who this man in the White House is and what his ambitions are. As for the Republicans in the Congress or running for office, the task is upon your shoulders to stop Barack Obama in his tracks before he goes any farther. It is time to do your sworn duty to preserve and protect the country. And for the Democrats who are so blinded by party loyalty that they would sell their country for the proverbial thirty pieces of silver, the long-term difficulties and potential downfall of the greatest nation on earth will be your legacy.

Investors.com opines: President Obama's nonrecess "recess appointments" can't be excused as over-the-top electioneering. This president has crossed over from socialistic extremism into lawlessness and, perhaps, impeachability. The U.S. Constitution established a strong presidency — so strong that even one of the most esteemed founding fathers, Patrick Henry, worried it would be kinglike. But this week saw a president exceed even those broad constitutional powers because doing so fits his election-year narrative of a "do-nothing Congress" so well.
Now we have the makings of a banana republic, where the rule of clearly written constitutional law is compromised by a ruler's subjective whim.
Some may say these are small-potato government jobs not worth a big confrontation. But if a president can trample the Constitution on these appointments, the door opens for similar abuses of power with Cabinet secretaries and judicial nominations.
Obama claims he has "an obligation as president to do what I can without them," referring to Congress.
But the Constitution, which Obama took an oath to preserve, protect and defend, says he can't.http://news.investors.com/Article/596910/201201051902/obamas-banana-republic-abuse-of-power.htm
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Big Peace reports: In the president’s signing statement issued Saturday in passing into law the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill, Mr. Obama said restrictions aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on U.S. Standard Missile-3 velocity burnout parameters might impinge on his constitutional foreign policy authority.
As first disclosed in this space several weeks ago, U.S. officials are planning to provide Moscow with the SM-3 data, despite reservations from security officials who say that doing so could compromise the effectiveness of the system by allowing Russian weapons technicians to counter the missile. The weapons are considered some of the most effective high-speed interceptors in the U.S. missile defense arsenal.
There are also concerns that Russia could share the secret data with China and rogue states such as Iran and North Korea to help their missile programs defeat U.S. missile defenses. http://bigpeace.com/jpollak/2012/01/04/obama-to-share-missile-defense-secrets-with-russia/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bloomberg reports: President Barack Obama bypassed the U.S. Senate and summarily installed Richard Cordray, the former Ohio attorney general, as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday.
Hours later, Obama filled three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board, possibly the only agency Republicans dislike more than the consumer bureau.
The White House called these “recess appointments,” even though Congress technically wasn’t in recess. In doing so, the president is playing with fire. He risks an election-year legal challenge that could hamstring the consumer bureau and several other financial regulators whose pending confirmations will probably now stall. The president’s authority -- and that of future executives -- to fill administration posts without Senate approval may be limited by the courts.

We understand why the president, out of deep frustration, went around Republican senators. Under the Dodd-Frank law that created the consumer bureau, it can’t issue rules or regulate many financial firms, including payday lenders, debt collectors and mortgage brokers, absent a full-time director. The NLRB, which enforces labor laws, is stymied with three out of five seats vacant -- not enough for a quorum.
Nevertheless, our desire to have effective regulation doesn’t trump our reservations over the president’s unusual methods. If the goal was to improve government function, Obama might have achieved the opposite by all but inviting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to sue.

Washington Times reports: The president acted just a day after the Senate held a session — a move that breaks with at least three different precedents which have held that the Senate must be in recess for at least three days before a president can act. Mr. Obama himself was part of two of those precedents, both during his own time in the Senate and again in 2010 when one of his administration’s top lawyers made the three-day argument to the Supreme Court.

Using sharp language, congressional Republicans said the Senate considers itself still in session for purposes of blocking recess appointments, and the move threatened to become a declaration of war against Congress.
“Although the Senate is not in recess, President Obama, in an unprecedented move, has arrogantly circumvented the American people,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican. .http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/4/obama-unprecedented-recess-appointment/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------MSNBC writes: President Barack Obama announced a recess appointment to name Richard Cordray as the nation's chief consumer watchdog despite strong Republican opposition, bypassing Senate approval.
"I refuse to take `no' for an answer," the president said told a cheering crowd in Ohio.
The announcement drew immediate fire from Republicans who have blocked Cordray's appointment since it was announced in July.
This is a very grave decision by this heavy-handed, autocratic White House," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/04/9947364-obama-defies-gop-by-naming-new-consumer-watchdog
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Salon reports: Here is an actual Rick Santorum quote: “One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country.” And also, “Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
These comments were not dug up from some bygone moment of ideological purity, before dreams of a presidential campaign. He said it in October, to a blogger at CaffeinatedThoughts.com (they met at Des Moines’ Baby Boomers Cafe).
It’s pretty basic: Rick Santorum is coming for your contraception. Any and all of it. And while he may not be alone in his opposition to non-procreative sex, he is certainly the most honest about it — as he himself acknowledged in the interview. http://www.salon.com/2012/01/04/rick_santorum_is_coming_for_your_birth_control/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABC News: A new partnership aimed at helping a quarter of a million young people find summer jobs.
The initiative, part of Obama’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign, is intended to replace a youth jobs fund that would have been enacted had Congress passed the president’s $447 billion jobs bill.
“America’s young people face record unemployment, and we need to do everything we can to make sure they’ve got the opportunity to earn the skills and a work ethic that come with a job. It’s important for their future, and for America’s. That’s why I proposed a summer jobs program for youth in the American Jobs Act — a plan that Congress failed to pass. America’s youth can’t wait for Congress to act. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,” Obama said in a written statement.
The new partnership between the federal government and the private sector commits to creating nearly 180,000 employment opportunities for low-income youth in the summer of 2012, with a goal of reaching 250,000 employment opportunities by the start of summer. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/white-house-cant-wait-to-help-young-people-get-summer-jobs/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------American Thinker writes on the Democrat list of rights: the State of the Union address delivered by Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 in which he laid out what is commonly referred to as the "Second Bill of Rights." It is a consolidation of socialist thinking begun in the mid-nineteenth century.These tenets, never contemplated by the founding fathers as God-given rights, have nonetheless become the foundational principle of the Democratic Party. Democrats' successful attempt, along with the tacit concurrence of many in the Republican Party, to force this dogma on American society has entailed at least partial realization of the following:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; and

The right to a good education.

While these are admirable goals for any society, it is impossible to guarantee these ideals. Yet when liberals frame and promote these goals as "rights," the expectation of much the populace is that these are in fact entitlements that every American should be guaranteed.

The Blaze reports: Although it happened back in September, 2011, it appears many American taxpayers are unaware that General Motors struck a deal in Shanghai wherein the company has agreed to develop an electric vehicle (EV) platform with its longtime Chinese partner SAIC.
What else was included in this deal? GM has agreed to effectively move all future EV development to China. It could also mean that production of the vehicle itself will be moved overseas.
The agreement is the result of the Chinese government coercing foreign automakers into giving Chinese companies the EV technology they lack, according to an Associated Press report. Unsurprisingly, some U.S. lawmakers have voiced concerns that the deal is little more than a “shake down” from the Chinese to get GM’s Volt secrets. GM has denied reports that it will hand over the intellectual property underlying the Volt. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/after-receiving-bailout-gm-may-move-volt-production-to-china/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------World Net Daily reports: Several New Hampshire legislators declared at a press conference today that President Barack Obama is not a “natural born citizen” of the United States and that New Hampshire voters were defrauded by Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Dr. Orly Taitz, attorney and founder of Defend our Freedoms Foundation, has been bringing suits against states which would force the states to prove Barack Obama's eligibility to be President prior to putting him on their ballot. This is her first victory......

Farrar Motion to dismiss by Obama is denied
I still can’t believe this. The order is in the link above. Judge Malihi, Deputy Chief judge of the Administrative court in GA, ruled, that Obama’s motion to dismiss is denied. He will have to stand trial and prove his eligibility for office.
This is particularly sweet, as it is happening in GA, where judge Clay D. Land maligned me so badly and attacked me with $20,000 of sanctions in order to silence me, to stop me from challenging Obama. Judge Land was sending a message to other attorneys and intimidating them, de facto telling them, “you dare to go after Obama, raise the issue of his forged birth certificate and invalid Social Secrity number, establishment will attack you and sanction you, just like attorney Taitz” http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/?p=29976
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Examiner writes: Georgia Election Code states: “Every candidate for federal and state office … shall meet the constitutional and statutory qualifications for holding the office being sought.”
Despite the clear language of the code, Obama claimed, in his motion to dismiss, the law doesn’t apply to presidential primaries.
Irion called that argument “absurd” and stated, “If the state of Georgia intended presidential primaries to not be considered elections it would not codify the administration of such primaries within Title 21 of Georgia’s codes, entitled ‘Election Code.’”

Irion noted the relevant portion of statute states, “The secretary of state … may challenge the qualifications of any candidate prior to the presidential primary.”
He said, “Since no one has been elected to the office of President of the United States for the term of office beginning in January 2013, today is still ‘any time prior to the election of such candidate.’”

Further, Irion stated, “Contrary to the defendant’s statement, a minority of Americans have an absolute right to be protected from a non-natural-born-citizen being elected President.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Washington Examiner writes: House investigators will hold a hearing this week on President Obama's immigrant visa application policy following an inspector general report that immigration enforcement bureaucrats pressure officers to approve potentially fraudulent immigrant visa applications.
"It’s outrageous that administration officials would compromise national security for their own political agenda and gain," said House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas. "The Immigration Subcommittee plans to hold a hearing in February on visa fraud and will investigate these alleged abuses by the administration," he added.
Smith was responding to "a recent Inspector General report that Obama administration officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS] have pressured officers to rush questionable immigrant visa applications," saying that such a policy "undermines the integrity of our immigration system and threatens national security." http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/house-hold-hearing-obama-visa-fraud/288791
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Government Accountability Office examined the results of covert tests conducted over the last year and -- despite the boasting of President Barack Obama and his national security team -- found significant weaknesses in the CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Inspections] inspection process at the ports of entry that were tested. http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/gao-reveals-border-security-weakness-despite-obama-boasts-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personal Liberty writes: A new class being offered for credit at New York’s Columbia University will allow young people to join the ranks of OWS protesters not as unemployed, disgruntled activists, but as anthropology students.
Upperclassman and graduate students at the Ivy League school where the average yearly cost of attendance is around $60,000 — well over the annual income of Americans considered poor — will take to the streets under the direction of Dr. Hannah Appel to learn about economic inequality. The class is dubbed “Occupy the Field: Global Finance, Inequality, Social Movement.” Instruction will be split between spending time with the 99 percent and lectures at the college’s campus. http://www.personalliberty.com/news/ows-for-credit-at-columbia-university/?eiid=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned. http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/01/m-taliban_leaders_held_at_gitmo_to_be_released.html------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Transnationalism and Postconstitutionalism - [a list of Obama's radical appointments]: Transnationalism is, in part, the theory/doctrine that the U.S. should subordinate its sovereignty to the U.N. in the interest of world comity. Policies which weaken national sovereignty such as open borders, rights of illegals, and the promotion of challenges to dominant religious and cultural institutions are consonant with transnationalist objectives.Postconstitutionalsim (or, more commonly, non-originalism) is the theory/doctrine that the Constitution should be a "living" document adaptable to modern realities. Indeed, the Constitution should not be locked into the 18th-century mindset of the original framers.The two doctrines dovetail nicely, and many of Obama's most influential appointees openly advocate the agenda of the twin sisters. They include:Harold Koh - Chief Counsel, State Department Koh believes that America should defer to the International Court of Justice to determine legal precedents.Todd Stern - Climate CzarStern thinks that international agencies, such as the United Nations, should take the lead on forcing climate change solutions down the throats of national governmentsohn Holdren - Science Czar Holdren wants the government to dictate family size and advocate a "planetary regime" run by the United NationsEric Holder - Attorney General Can there be a better example of undermining national sovereignty than Holder (who is also a member of the ACS) joining with a foreign country (Mexico) to sue Arizona over its immigration laws? Samantha Power - National Security Council Ed Lasky, news editor for American Thinker, writes in his articleThe Power of Samantha Power that "the Soros-linked Samantha Power continues to work with Barack Obama to weaken the concept of American sovereignty and empower the international community at the expense of American independence.Preeta Bansal - General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Management & BudgetBansal is a leader of the American Constitutional Society. Like the ACS, Bansal is a strong supporter of illegal alien rights, terrorist rights, and other rights not enshrined in the Constitution. Cecilia Munoz - Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, Executive Office of the President Munoz is an open-borders advocate who served recently as the vice president for the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), where she supervised all legislative activities. La Raza is the nation's foremost supporter of "rights" for illegal aliens and the granting of amnesty to the millions of illegals here in America. Cass Sunstein - Regulatory Czar Sunstein openly advocates behavioral modification by "nudging" people into the proper mindset for the 21st century. Mark Lloyd - FCCChief Diversity Officer Lloyd's view of the 1st Amendment is...well, refreshingly novel:It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press. This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/m-by_his_fruits_ye_shall_know_him_obamas_subversive_appointments.html

Washington Examiner writes: Big Green has an unlikely new sales pitch to convince Congress to fund ever-expanding land grabs by the National Park Service -- save wildlife migration. A map overlay showing all the U.S. wildlife migration paths would blot out nearly half the nation -- a very clever diagram for empire-building bureaucrats. The obscure but well-heeled Wildlife Conservation Society (2010 assets $764 million) unveiled the idea last week in "Spectacular Migrations in the Western U.S.," a 45-page report on the purportedly urgent need for a widespread network of wildlife migration corridors to avert countless extinctions. The WCS is a consortium of zoos ("urban wildlife parks") and global conservation programs that uses science, according to its mission statement, to "change attitudes towards nature." Its Spectacular Migrations report looks suspiciously like the expansion agenda of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the NPS's boss.There's a good reason: WCS staff recently conducted a migration workshop for the NPS, which produced a new framework for conserving migrations in or near national parks.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Personal Liberty reports: The Electronic Privacy Information Center is suing the Department of Homeland Security for a new program that tracks individuals’ social media activity if they are deemed a threat by using certain keywords in posts.
The organization claims “legal authority for the DHS program remains unclear” and asked a Federal court last week to compel the department to turn over documents on the initiative.
DHS makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for “sensitive” words and tracking the people who use them. The words on the DHS list range from things that might suggest the mention of bioweapons to more obscure words like “drill,” “strain” and “illegal immigrant,” according to The Daily Mail.
The latest controversy involving the Federal government’s attempts to meddle with the Internet comes as the debate continues over the House Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate Protect IP Act — both of which would impose China-like Internet regulations in the United States. http://www.personalliberty.com/news/dhs-tracks-facebook-twitter-users/?eiid=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In … April a Tunica County, Miss., jury convicted NAACP official Lessadolla Sowers on 10 counts of fraudulently casting absentee ballots. Sowers is identified on an NAACP website as a member of the Tunica County NAACP Executive Committee.

Sowers received a five-year prison term for each of the 10 counts, but Circuit Court Judge Charles Webster permitted Sowers to serve those terms concurrently, according to the Tunica Times, the only media outlet to cover the sentencing.

[T]wo Ohio voters, including Christopher Barkley , [sic] claimed that they were hounded by the community-activist group ACORN to register to vote several times, even though they made it clear they’d already signed up. Barkley estimated he’d registered to vote ‘10 to 15’ times after canvassers for ACORN relentlessly pursued him and others. ‘I kept getting approached by folks who asked me to register,’ Barkley said….

ACORN bribed and/or pressured Freddie Johnson of Cleveland to register to vote 72 times. Johnson filled out 72 separate voter-registration cards over an 18-month period at the behest of ACORN. Johnson stated ‘[s]ometimes, they come up and bribe me with a cigarette, or they’ll give me a dollar to sign up, …The ACORN people are everywhere, looking to sign people up. I tell them I am already registered. The girl said, ‘You are?’ I say, ‘Yup,’ and then they say, ‘Can you just sign up again?’‘ He’d collected 10 to 20 cigarettes and anywhere from $10 to $15, he said. [Emphasis added] http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/01/02/naacp-worker-sentenced-to-prison-for-voter-fraud/

The Post email writes: New Hampshire House of Representatives Members to Hold Press Conference on Obama’s Eligibility on January 3. [This is a fascinating report. It will be interesting to see if any media cover it.]

Daily Kos wrote: Moving quickly on Christmas Day after the US Senate voted 86 - 14 to pass the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA) which allows for the indefinite military detention of American citizens without charge or trial, Montanans have announced the launch of recall campaigns against Senators Max Baucus and Jonathan Tester, who voted for the bill.
Montana is one of nine states with provisions that say that the right of recall extends to recalling members of its federal congressional delegation, pursuant to Montana Code 2-16-603, on the grounds of physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of certain felony offenses. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/25/1048711/-Montanans-Launch-Recall-of-Senators-Who-Approved-NDAA-Military-Detention-Merry-Christmas,-US-Senate
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Election Law Center opines: The Wall Street Journal had the must-read article on DOJ's refusal to permit South Carolina to implement a photo ID law. Below is an excerpt from Assistant Attorney General Perez's letter to South Carolina objecting on behalf of Attorney General Holder.

"Although the state has a legitimate interest in preventing voter fraud and safeguarding voter confidence," it didn't provide "any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any other type of fraud that is not already addressed by the state's existing voter identification requirement," said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney for civil rights, in a letter to state officials.
In its letter, DOJ rejected South Carolina's voter ID law, in large part because the state failed to provide "any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any other type of fraud..." Requiring a state to provide evidence of extensive fraud sets an elevated standard specifically rejected by the Supreme Court and in direct contradiction to the Court's opinion endorsing photo identification and previous precedent. http://electionlawcenter.com/2011/12/24/contradicting-supreme-court-doj-rejected-sc-photo-id-law-due-to-lack-to-voter-impersonation-fraud.aspx--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Gateway Pundit writes: On Wednesday the Taliban blew up 3 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.On Thursday the Taliban blew up 10 Afghan soldiers with a roadside bomb.
So how does the Obama Adminstration respond to the continued attacks by the Taliban?
They step up surrender talks.
The Obama administration hopes to restore momentum in the spring to U.S. talks with the Taliban insurgency that had reached a critical point before falling apart this month because of objections from Afghan President Hamid Karzai,U.S. and Afghan officials said.
One goal of renewed talks with the insurgents would be to identify cease-fire zones that could be used as a steppingstone toward a full peace agreement that stops most fighting, a senior administration official told The Associated Press—a goal that remains far out of reach. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/12/unreal-obama-administration-steps-up-surrender-meetings-with-the-taliban/
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The Gateway Pundit writes: The violent crime rate in Washington, D.C., is up 13 percent since the Occupy D.C. protest began this fall as police officers have been pulled out of local neighborhoods and reassigned to the protest.
The chairman of the local police union pinned the blame on the city’s redistribution of resources, noting that on some shifts between two and 18 neighborhood patrol officers have relocated to Occupy D.C. Those protesters are primarily based in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, two downtown locations near the White House. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/12/police-union-blames-occupydc-for-rising-crime-rate-video/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Gateway Pundit reveals: CAIR said visitors to “Bare Naked Islam,” hosted by WordPress.com, now see the message: “barenakedislam.wordpress.com is no longer available. This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service.”
[NOTE: "Bare Naked Islam" was one of the major promoters of the campaign to pressure Lowe's to drops its ads from TLC's "All-American Muslim."] http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/12/police-union-blames-occupydc-for-rising-crime-rate-video/
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AP reports: President Barack Obama is delaying his request for another $1.2 trillion increase in the nation's debt limit at the request of congressional leaders.

It's basically because of a technicality.

The White House had been ready to ask for the increase Friday because the government is within $100 billion of exhausting its current borrowing authority. Congress would then have 15 days to reject the request, though Obama would veto any objections in order to ensure that the government does not default on its obligations.

Expose Obama writes: In just a few days a new ObamaCare tax—that will double the following year—will kick in to fund “comparative effectiveness research” that’s supposed to help the government save money by finding ways to ration healthcare.
This is crazy;a semi-secret tax so the feds have cash to pay bureaucrats to examine everyone’s health records and,in turn,the government can save money by cutting back on care. The official plan,as noted by a national news wire this week,is to conduct research to find out which drugs,medical procedures,tests,and treatments work best. It’s part of a “little-known provision” of the president’s socialist takeover of the nation’s healthcare system. http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/12/30/happy-new-year-happy-new-obamacare-tax/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Spectator writes: Blocking Obamite Efforts to Nationalize Education Policy: U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett has introduced the LEARN Act to let states opt out of federal micromanagement, and it appears to be a great idea. As Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute points out (and as U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has been noting as well), the Obama administration is improperly using the "waiver" process to force their own policy choices on the states. http://spectator.org/archives/2011/12/30/so-many-outrages-so-little-tim
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Vision to America reports: A story in USA Today reports that inmates, some of them serving life sentences, have applied to the IRS to be tax preparers. Most of them did not reveal that they were incarcerated. It’s good to know that prisoners are trying to be productive members of society. It’s kind of like Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption (1994) who does the books for the warden and the prison guards.
Maybe these incarcerated prisoners got their inspiration from watching Shawshank.
The inmates and ex-cons were among thousands of applicants who got the identification numbers from the IRS from September 2010 through July 2011 as the agency began phasing in a 2009 congressional mandate that requires many preparers to file tax returns electronically.
There is just one problem. The prisoners will have access to the social security numbers of the tax returns they’re working on. http://visiontoamerica.org/6809/prisoners-may-be-preparing-your-tax-return/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Washington Times writes: As Employers are facing more uncertainty in the wake of a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warning them that requiring a high school diploma from a job applicant might violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The development also has some wondering whether the agency’s advice will result in an educational backlash by creating less of an incentive for some high school students to graduate. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/1/eeoc-high-school-diploma-might-violate-americans-w/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Politico writes: Since the holidays, GOP congressional leaders have used a handful of senators and a procedural technicality to keep their chamber active, gaveling in and out of session for a few minutes every two to three days. The strategy: Play keep-away with Obama’s power to fill confirmation-level jobs in their absence, the only way he can avoid almost-certain Republican filibusters of his nominees.

But some Obama allies and government watchdog groups want him to flex his constitutional muscle and declare the Senate is in recess if it’s inactive for less than three days or idle for perhaps even less than a minute. The bold counter-move would upend a long-held but legally murky congressional tradition, ratchet up tensions between Obama and the GOP and trigger fresh partisan fighting over the Senate’s advise-and-consent role — tit-for-tat warfare that probably would extend to already contentious judicial nominations.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/70989.html#ixzz1iIwP1O8V

Washington Examiner writes: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said Sunday that he was wrong to ask state legislators to let more Republican presidential candidates on the state's March primary ballot, saying it would be unfair to the two candidates who followed the rules to qualify.

Just 24 hours after imploring Virginia legislators to pass emergency legislation opening the primary up to the rest of the field, Cuccinelli now feels "that changing the rules midstream is inconsistent with respecting and preserving the rule of law," he said in a statement. [What was he thinking in the first place, that consequences of one's actions shouldn't matter?]

About Me

I began this blog when my local liberal newspaper (in a Republican district) not only refused to print any of the negatives about Barack Obama, but then refused to run my letter to the editor entitled Ten Reasons Not To Vote For Obama! I realized it's time to do something more than fume about it! I hope you learn some things your paper is not teaching you....